Roofs
by Jeccelo
Summary: taang AU oneshot : little something i felt like posting :D


**Roofs**

by Jeccelo

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**A/N**: An AU Taang oneshot that i wrote either earlier this year (2008) or last year entirely, not sure. Not my best. But good ;) Told from Aang's POV. It was originally gonna be part of a whole fic but i nixed that idea, therefore this kinda has the feel of a first chapter. Toph and Aang are 14-15 years old. thanks for reading!

**Disclaimer**: I own nothin! If i did, Zutara would have kicked butt a long time ago.

-New chapter of A Swifter Appraisal is currently in progress and should be up by this weekend :) thanks!

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"Sour grapes, huh?"

I sighed. "You'd know it."

"Shut up."

Her lime hightops were the first to come into view, followed by her baggy kaki shorts that went down past her shins. I was in a dejected daze so pretty much at liberty to watch something as random as the fabric folding at her knees when she lowered herself down beside him. I shifted positions so she could fit, lifting my hand off the roof's surface. In my palm were etched the teensy, detailed prickles of the shingles. My wrist felt sore from leaning on it for an hour.

"Just because Sokka won't go out with me," she said. "And he even has a girlfriend; I'm actually the one trying here."

"I'm trying." My rush to defend my honor was-- considering my opponent was someone like Toph-- completely pathetic. "I've asked Katara out pretty much every other day; and she's dating someone too. That Jet guy."

I'd never like that jock; he was like the fly that just wouldn't go away, only about a million times worse.

"Nah, she broke up with him, like forever ago," Toph said.

I blinked. "What?"

"Yeah. But now she's dating some skater named Zuko. They're all over eachother."

Well, so much for encouragement. I looked out at the street. "Great."

The porch light, the light from the lamp post, and the yellow glow from the windows below the roof made up some fake sunset glow to our midnight discussion. Toph and I always came up on the roof; I can't really remember a single night in the past four summers when we weren't swinging into my bedroom window from the drainpipe at the call of my mom. Our fingers would be pink and ridiculously sticky from the melting bag of popsicles that we'd previously devoured as a duo. We'd watch the bag detach from the roof, flying off into the yard and across the street in the warm summer wind. That would be our excuse to spend more time outside before bed. We'd run outside across the dry grass and hunt it down. Once we kicked and blew it all the way around the block just to avoid bedtime, watching the sky get darker and darker, the lamp posts getting brighter and brighter.

But that was like, fifth and sixth grade. Being a freshman is a lot different. We don't eat our weight in popsicles or chase floating bags into the next state anymore. Now we just talk. It sounded like the worst and most boring thing to do on the planet a few years before, but now it's all we feel like doing. It must be a sign we're getting really old.

"So... are you going to ask her again?" Toph chanced. "Or are you just _kaput_, done, move on?"

I jerked my shoulders in some form of a shrug. "Whatever."

"You know, I think she likes you. Really, I think she's just confusing herself with all these rocker guys, I mean, once she gets to know you, it could..."

One look for me and she shut up.

"Toph, I've known Katara forever, like I've known you. If we were ever going to date or get together, it would have happened by now."

She studied me, then bit her lip.

"Yeah, I think you're right."

I threw up my hands. "I wanted you to argue with me!"

"Sorry! I miss a cue now and again, sue me."

"I might."

"Ah come on, just get over her."

"I don't get it; who's side are you on?"

"I try to make you feel better, feed you what you wanna hear, and it only depresses you more. So I guess I'm on Katara's side. Give up on her."

"Why doesn't she like me? What's wrong with me?"

"Nothing. It's all her; she's just not into you, dude. You're two years younger than her, have you ever considered that? Girls think in the _opposite_ direction. And look at Zuko: he makes an oven unit look cold."

"Says you."

"_And_ Katara."

I kinda felt like smacking her right then. "Just stop talking about him, okay?"

"Aang, are you going to live in denial till graduation, then stalk her on her honeymoon? She's dating someone else! They're on their own planet. You don't have to marry the first girl you meet, y'know."

"Then why can't I get her out of my head? Tell me that."

She leaned back on her hands. Her long, straight black hair was camouflaged against the backdrop of the night; the only bit of it I could see was the loose bang on her eye not held back with bobbi pins and the strands that were slung over her shoulder on her chest. Her pale skin seemed to glow. She wore a cream colored shirt with olive sleeves that barely reached her elbows. On her wrists was a wide leather strap with a digital clock peering out of the binding, a watch she'd made years ago at camp. Apart from that, her wrists were strung up with all kinds of bracelets she'd either woven or beaded or bought. Her back was arched and she was tall and slender; her big silver belt shoved higher than her flat abdomen.

Overall, she looked like a brunette Avril Lavigne. When she played her guitar, it was like some universal connection had been made. It was so easy for Toph to be herself; she was like some prototype of how a person's supposed to be. I used to think all girls should be smart-mouthed, fearless tomboys like her... until I'd started liking the softy, pretty girls like Katara.

Since then, I hadn't really been able to make up my mind of what a girl should be. Toph and Katara both had such strong choke holds on me, Toph sometimes in the literal sense. My best friend and my uber crush... I hadn't been influenced as much by anyone else, not even my parents. So they were kind of at war in my head for the highest ranking girl award.

"You could just be in a phase," she said. I suddenly remembered what I'd asked her. From the sound of her voice and the look on her face, I could tell she was trying to be firm and sympathetic at the same time.

"It's unlikely," I said, but in reality, she'd made me think a little.

"That's kinda how it is with Sokka and I," she went on to say. "In fact, I just barely got over him, like, five minutes ago."

"Really?" I grinned. "Nah, not really."

"Really really," she said. "I can brush things off pretty fast."

"Lucky you." I sighed. "I just kinda wish that... I didn't _need_ to get over her, y'know? Like, I'll get my way eventually."

Toph chewed on her lips, her face turned out at the sleeping neighborhood while she thought.

"Katara's graduating from high school in seven months," she finally said. "The difference between you guys is at it's max right now, in my opinion. She doesn't even hang out with us anymore, she's totally... grown up, I guess. As much as you might not like it, I think you put your finger on it a minute ago: if anything romantic was gonna start between you guys, it would have by now."

I sighed and laid back on the roof. It wasn't the most comfortable head rest in the world but it worked, and I was a little too occupied _in_ the head to worry about the _out_side.

"It's easier to like someone when you're a little kid," I said. It was kind of like this inspired, spur-of-the-moment speech. She listened. "Then, you're more in your own world. In your mind, they like you back, and you don't have to worry about anyone else. Then you get into the real world."

"Yeah. Sometimes the real world sucks." She lowered herself on her back like I had and touched her head to mine. "But it's good to know we can make what we want of our lives. Like, if you really stick to it, you could be over her real soon."

I glanced at her; her face was at a slanted angle, giving me a straight shot at the crest of her cheekbone. I watched her dark, dark eyelashes rest on her light skin. She looked so clam, so in control, and... something else.

"You think I could?" I murmured. Everything was suddenly quieter.

"Sure," she said genuinely, and she looked at me too. She wasn't really looking at me, just in my direction, because her eyelashes flipped back and suddenly I got the full blown view of her vivid blue irises... pale from blindness.

Toph had been blind her whole life but the way she'd learned to rise above it... to find beauty in darkness... I could bet Helen Keller would take a run for her money. Toph did everything every other kid did, and she did it _really_ well. Whenever she was on a longboard, or playing a guitar or the drums, or coddling and cooing over her puppy with all the love in the world, her eyes were whole. They weren't glazed, sightless orbs stuck in her head, they were television documentaries of what was inside her. When I'd reached that level of understanding, I used to wish vaguely that I could be blind for a day, just so people could see my spirit that easily. I think Toph took for granted what power she had being able to show people the outside doesn't matter, that it can't stop anyone from living their dreams, even if they weren't the dreams you might have had in mind.

In short, she was amazing... and for some reason it felt like I was realizing that for the first time in my life. Suddenly, I saw her like I'd never seen her before.

Her eyes lowered.

"You look different," I said vaguely. I was still emerging from the thought realm.

"Mm?"

"You. You look different."

"Hm. How?"

"I don't know... you just do."

She smirked. "Did I just think an evil thought without realizing it?"

"No, it's not that kind of difference," I said, and chuckled. "It's friendly."

"Well, that's good." She sat up and started fishing around in her pockets.

But she didn't get it, didn't appreciate it. I couldn't blame her. It was a weird thing to say, and I couldn't even explain it myself that well. She'd responded with a willing and playful air, just going with the flow. Whatever her weird Aang friend said.

I propped myself up on my elbows and watched her pull out her green iPod, untangling headphones with five clawed fingers.

"You want an ear?" she asked.

"Sure."

I assumed the Katara subject had been closed until further notice. I didn't really feel like opening it back up too soon; it was late, I was tired, and Toph's tunes were five stars straight across.

xxx

**A\N**: :) taang rocks


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